There has been proposed an analyzer which is adapted to qualitatively and quantitatively analyzing a specimen spread in a disk. The analyzer is employed for analysis of a blood specimen for diagnosis of a disease.
As shown in FIG. 18, a specimen analysis disk 320 to be used in an analyzer of this type has tracks (not shown) engraved thereon like a conventional optical disk, and includes specimen injection ports 325 and specimen spreading cavities 322 provided therein in communication with the respective specimen injection ports 325. After specimens are respectively injected into the specimen spreading cavities 322, the disk 320 is rotated to spread the specimens in the respective specimen spreading cavities 322. Then, the specimens spread in the respective specimen spreading cavities 322 are simultaneously detected by a focus/tracking technique with the use of a focus/tracking system commonly employed in an optical disk device such as a CD-ROM device (see, for example, WO00/026677).
However, biological specimens such as blood specimens which may possibly be contaminated with infectious pathogens are often analyzed with the use of the disk. If such a specimen is leaked and scattered out of the disk 320 in the analysis and an operator touches the leaked specimen, there is a possibility that the operator is infected with a pathogen. For prevention of the leakage of the specimen, a sealing sheet (not shown) is manually applied onto the specimen injection port 325 after the injection of the specimen.
However, the manual application of the sealing sheet reduces handling ease. In addition, the sealing sheet is liable to be displaced from a due position, failing to assuredly seal the specimen injection port 325. Where the specimen adheres to the periphery of the specimen injection port 325 in the injection of the specimen, there is a possibility that the operator touches the specimen when the sealing sheet is applied onto the specimen injection port 325. Particularly, where the disk 320 has a small thickness, the specimen injection ports do not have a sufficiently great depth. Hence, there is a risk that the specimen adheres to the periphery of the specimen injection port 325 with a distal portion of a specimen injector being displaced from the specimen injection port 325. Therefore, the operator is required to perform the specimen injecting operation very carefully.